A review by former intelligence analysts concludes that the Bush administration “apparently paid little or no attention” to pre-war CIA assessments warning of major cultural and political obstacles to stability in post-war Iraq. The unclassified report, completed in July 2004,… Read moreReport: White House ignored CIA on Iraq chaos
How are we to read this one? Is the US conniving with the Sudan regime while trying to appear not to be? Or is the US gearing up for unilateral intervention in Sudan, and trying to make the UN appear… Read moreBolton bars UN testimony on Darfur
In an Oct. 9 interview with CNN, televangelist Pat Robertson—who recently got in hot water by calling for the assassination of Hugo Chavez—accused the Venezuelan president of giving Osama bin Laden $1.2 million after the 9-11 attacks and of trying… Read moreOsama bin Laden: football in US-Venezuela spat
In an Oct. 14 article in Russia’s Komsomolskaya Pravda, the newspaper claimed that it has “sensational” proof that imprisoned military intelligence (GRU) colonel Vladimir Kvachkov was involved in the apparent assassination attempt on Unified Energy Systems (EES) head Anatolii Chubais… Read moreImprisoned GRU colonel named in Chubais hit plot
A July 9 letter from al-Qaeda deputy leader Ayman al-Zawahiri to the organization’s supposed leader in Iraq, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, has allegedly been obtained by US forces in Iraq. The letter, released to the media, calls for the establishment of… Read moreAl-Zawahiri: kinder, gentler jihad?
Despite Indian aid to Pakistan-controlled Kashmir in the wake of the devastating earthquake which has claimed some 25,000 lives, news reports indicate concerns persist in New Delhi about how the divided region’s militant organizations are exploiting the disaster. An account… Read moreKashmir: Indo-Pak proxy politics persist despite disaster
From New York Newsday, Oct. 11, this harrowing report by staff writer John Riley from New Orleans’ devastated Lower Ninth Ward: Six weeks after the storm, no neighborhood in this ravaged city faces longer odds than the financially impoverished but… Read moreEthnic cleansing in New Orleans: it’s official
Another courageous strike by the heroic Iraqi resistance against the US occupation forces… oops, we mean against Shi’ite civilians. From AP, Oct. 5, via TruthOut: A bomb exploded at the entrance of a Shiite Muslim mosque south of Baghdad as… Read moreIraq: Ramadan blast kills 25
From the Sept. 30 edition of the New York Bangladeshi community paper Bangla Patrika. Translated from the Bangla by the NY Independent Press Association: Federal and local law enforcement agencies, including the FBI, raided the Darul Ulum Shady Brook, a… Read moreFeds raid Connecticut madrassa for vegetables
Freedom’s on the march in Afghanistan—freedom of opium kingpins to exploit the peasantry and make a killing. The opium economy has exploded since the country’s “liberation” from the Taliban, and efforts by the Anglo-American-led occupation forces to crack down on… Read moreAfghanistan: “narco-state under NATO’s nose”
Moroccan troops killed six undocumented African migrants attempting to reach the Spanish-controlled enclave of Melilla on the Mediterranean coast Oct. 6. Citing Abdellah Bendhiba, the governor of Nador province, news accounts said the Africans were killed in a “violent” assault… Read moreMoroccan security forces kill African migrants; crisis grows over Spanish enclaves
On his October 4 visit to Nicaragua, US deputy secretary of state Robert Zoellick met with President Enrique Bolaños and other senior officials to discuss the country’s ongoing political crisis. Speaking with reporters in Managua, Zoellick warned of stark consequences… Read moreU.S. threatens to tighten noose on Nicaragua
